Abstracts anywhere . . .

There is such beauty and such simplicity in the spiral form but I think we tend to not notice it. So here are two that I did notice . . .

I was tearing waxed paper and loved how bits of it curled into elegant spirals. And through a macro lens, we can see the fuzzy edges along the torn sides. A fuzzy spiral. Who knew?

The blue spiral below was part of something I found at an architectural salvage store in Oregon. In this case, it conjures up (for me) visions of curling ocean waves making their way to shore.

Spirals. They are everywhere if we just slow down enough to notice.

All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.

Recent work: "Red Sun Calligraphy" collage

This is a quite minimalistic collage, consisting of a piece of Braille paper, a very old piece of Japanese paper, a scrap of paper I painted, and then a cut-out circle made of mango leaves and fibers embedded in mulberry paper.

You can see it much larger and with more detail in my "Asian Influence" gallery at Fine Art America/Pixels.

It's not much, but I really like it!

All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.

Map to my heart . . .

Happy Valentine's Day!

Wishing you all love and kindness, today and every day. And especially to Chris, who loves me without reservation and who puts up with a heck of a lot! He's made my life so much better than it ever could have been.

xoxo

All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.

Latest work: "Dappled Crow in Blue"

When you're sitting in the car, holding a camera, and a crow's on a fence right in front of you, well, what would YOU have done?! This guy was quite handsome and made a fine silhouette.

There are a number of photos contained in this one picture. All were taken in Port Townsend, Washington and then I added strips of dusty pink, orange, and turquoise to echo the colors in the background peeling paint. So much fun to do, so difficult to describe . . .

I've uploaded this image to Fine Art America, where you can see it much bigger and at a higher resolution. Here's the link directly to it.

P.S. Wishing a good morning to Shirley, my friend in Bend.

All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.

Still snowing . . .

It seems as if it's been snowing for weeks! And there is more to come.

We're sort of stuck at home because there's only one way out on our road, and there's a big "dip" in the middle where you run the risk of sliding down into the dip and then not having enough traction to go up the other side and off to civilization.

There's only one snow removal truck on the island (rarely does snow linger here) and it concentrates mainly on the highway and in more populated areas. We will never see it. And so we do what we can and simply wait for our road to thaw.

Luckily there have been no power outages so far, no wind -- just a light, fluffy accumulation of snow. And it's magical.

This is a panorama shot from the deck, taken with an iPhone, showing what our back yard looks like.

Like I said . . . magical.

All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.

Boat bits . . .

A couple more "boat bits," strange images but they make me happy in their simplicity.

The top picture is an intake tube of some sort I spotted on the ferryboat "Kennewick" as we left the dock, heading to Port Townsend. The creamy white color stood out well against the blue sky, and I liked the contrast between the curved pipe and the straight line at the bottom.

And then, someone's having a bad hair day! Found on a boat being being re-painted in the boat yard. Always fun to find these "faces in unlikely places."

More snow will be moving in Friday night. And then next week another storm will allegedly pass through. If so, we will have gotten more snow than people here have seen within the past 25 years. Oh, lucky us!

And we've bought our first snow shovel!

All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.

It's snowing!

This is what I wrote yesterday when I posted this picture to Facebook: "It’s snowing, and I feel like a 6-year-old kid! Love how this tree in our front yard looks."

Looks like we got a few inches more in the night, but it's too dark right now to really see. The morning temperature is 21 degrees. Yikes!

We have heat, food, electricity, and nowhere we have to be. So grateful for this life.

(iPhone photo.)

All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.

A small Anacortes exploration . . .

I knew it was a long shot when I began, but I have discontinued my "Photo a Day" project. It's something that has served me well in the past, but it's not "sparking joy" for me right now, has become a small pressure, a responsibility, and is forcing me to spend even more time at the computer, which is not good.

And since I make art every day anyway, it's rather redundant. I don't need to post it all the time.

Big relief! And you know? It's kind of like the pressure I used to feel about reading books. If the book seemed to be going nowhere, and I wasn't enjoying it, I felt compelled to finish it, to honor my commitment to it. Those days are gone. Life is short and is getting shorter. Fill it with what you love, not what you feel you need to do, no matter what toll it may take on your mind and your body.

So these are some pictures I took in an Anacortes exploration the other day. Boats, boats, boats, silvery water, overcast skies, and I'm a happy photographer.

The fishing boat at the bottom is the F/V Oregon, out of Lopez Island, here in the San Juans. And above that is a view of what I believe is a fish processing plant. And the top photo? Pleasure boats moored at the Cap Sante Marina.

A good day. No pressure.

All text, photographs, and other media are ©Copyright Carol Leigh (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from Carol Leigh. Thank you for your understanding and kindness.